Cost: Free for Friday's opening reception and gallery viewing; regular admission is $2 for adults, $1 for seniors and free for members, military, students and families with children under 18

What else: A gallery talk about the paintings will take place at noon Saturday

Contact: 325-653-3333 or samfa.org

Texans will appreciate the new art exhibit at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.

West Texans will love it.

Texas artists working in places such as Austin, Houston, Albany, Abilene and Dallas paint the state as they see it, rattlesnakes and all.

Anyone who loves this state will love the 86 paintings and single sculpture created by Texas artists.

"Restless Heart: Early and Contemporary Texas Regionalism" is a long name for a large exhibit that packs the museum's galleries with works from past and present.

"A few are from our collection," said Laura Huckaby, SAMFA's collection manager, adding that many were created by contemporary living artists. Others were loaned from private collectors from across the state.

Separately, the paintings offer colorful glimpses of the state — from sandhill cranes basking in the sun to a painting of a major Fort Worth boulevard that you will swear is a photograph.

Different artists have different themes.

Some are dreamily abstract.

Some are so realistic you can hear the coyotes howling.

A few are downright funny, like the 3-D painting of a mustachioed cowboy holding an accordion.

Some, like "Where They Hide the Rain," invite a closer look as well as smiles.

Walking from one painting to the next feels like a tour through time and Texas.

Picasso-like Indians hunt buffalo from horseback.

The moon hovers over an overgrown cemetery.

An old pickup truck with a flat tire waits patiently by the side of the road.

A young cowboy stares straight ahead, straight into your heart.

Farmers harvest fields under endless skies.

Always, there are the skies. Big skies. White and dark in the twilight. Overpowering even the endless lands below.